The Balor Club Arrival Is Less Than Sweet

The Balor Club is back!

What’s the Balor Club?

It’s the famous trio of Finn Balor, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows. They used to run roughshod over the WWE the same way the NWO destroyed everything in their path in WCW. That’s why they do the Too Sweet hand signal and have cool handshakes. How do people not know what the Balor Club is? These guys go way back. And you can see how far they go back by watching their series of classic matches and segments on the WWE Network.

Yeah, none of that exists.

After online fans spent over a year craving for Balor to unite with Gallows and Anderson due to their Bullet Club days in NJPW, WWE gave the fans exactly what they wanted. In the lamest way possible. They, were just, together.

There is no on-screen history between the three. Their only run-in with one another was during a backstage segment with AJ Styles, who did team with Gallows and Anderson for a couple of months. Balor walked up to the trio, they wanted a “too sweet” and Balor just walked away. Their only on-screen appearance together would imply that they are not friends and that Balor wanted nothing to do with them.

But hey, those t-shirts are probably selling pretty well.

Not only did WWE give us the Balor Club without comment, they didn’t even try to explain their reasoning. Just, “We’ve been friends for a long time. Watch the WWE Network to see.”

Less than half of Raw’s audience has the WWE Network. Maybe they thought a million people would sign-up to see the history of three marginalized talents coming together.

WWE used to be so good at presenting people as stars and building up the anticipation of arrivals and formations. They used to use video packages to make you remember or have things make sense.

A simple video package would have done wonders for Balor Club on Monday. They have three hours of Raw to fill, instead of running the same “earlier tonight” video package three times during the show, why not put together a two-three minute video package that explains the friendship of Balor, Gallows, and Anderson? They don’t need NJPW footage. They have plenty of pictures at their disposal. Balor’s phone is probably filled with selfies of the three of them from years ago.

To take it a step further, have guys like AJ Styles, Brian Kendrick, Shelton Benjamin, and Shinsuke Nakamura discuss how these three terrorized everyone in Japan when they were together. Give them some sort of immediate credibility and backstory that fans care about.

Of course, all of this would imply that there is an actual plan for Balor, Gallows, and Anderson beyond “help Roman Reigns get over.” All three men have been floundering for the better part of a year now. Putting them together was a way to appease a hardcore audience and the three men themselves.

They’re all having fun together and it sure beats not being on the show at all, but it’s a waste of talent.

No matter your thoughts on the three, there’s no denying that they have talent and chemistry. Something of substance can be done with the Balor Club beyond Shield Background Noise.

Based on WWE’s booking history, I don’t have high hopes for the Balor Club. Their win on Monday happened because Jason Jordan is not Dean Ambrose, not because the Balor Club is an actual threat. Their introduction to the audience may as well have been Stephanie McMahon pulling names out of a hat and introducing them as a team of three.

At least they can use too sweet and have cool handshakes. That’s better than nothing.